Lilian Stiles-Allen

Who was Lilian Stiles-Allen?

Lilian Stiles-Allen was a British soprano of the mid 20th century.

She was born Lilian Elizabeth Allen in Devonshire Street, Marylebone in 1890, and later added her mother's maiden name.

Her musical education was at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she won the Sheriff's Prize for contraltos [sic] in 1909, and in Vienna undertaking an extensive study of Lieder.

Her career was primarily on the concert stage, her physique being unsuited to operatic performance, but an early theatrical appearance was in the comedy Eastward Ho! in 1919.

By the 1920s she was established as a leading concert soprano. Her appearances included the Handel Festival at the Crystal Palace; a revival of Sullivan's The Golden Legend; Messiah with Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent; Verdi's Requiem; Beethoven's Choral Symphony; Handel's Solomon; Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's The Song of Hiawatha; and Mendelssohn's Elijah.

In addition to the standard repertoire, Stiles-Allen sang in Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder under the composer; Delius's A Mass of Life; and Mahler's Eighth Symphony.